Site Contributions: Tibor Machan

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	05/15/13 - Back to Basics, Please In today's climate of political theatrics it isn't very easy to figure out where right stands versus wrong. As Ron Paul points out at The Daily Bell, the Benghazi fiasco pretty ...

	05/08/13 - More Environmentalist Confusions The New York Observer reported in its April 15, 2013, issue (B 1) that Leonardo DiCaprio is teaming up with Christie's in New York City to hold a "major philanthropic auction." ...

	05/01/13 - Government Regulations Revisited You might not think it considering my relentless concerns about the growing power of government, but I am not a pessimist. There are many areas of life where liberty is making ...

	04/24/13 - Public Choice Theory is Overlooked Whenever public officials promise to manage affairs of state, I am baffled how they fail to pay heed to public choice theory. This is the idea for which the late, great James ...

	04/17/13 - The Corruption of Individual Rights Whenever a good idea surfaces, there will surely be many who will try to hitch their wagon to it filled with corrupt versions that aim to serve numerous purposes having little ...

	04/13/13 - No Difference in Ideology and Values When you consider what is the difference between the ideology of North Korea and that of the U.S.A., it is difficult to say. In practical terms, of course, the U.S.A. is still ...

	04/10/13 - Public Museums and Censorship Is there a difference between censorship and selectivity? In a private gallery or museum the owners or curators must always be selective. There isn't infinite, unlimited room ...

	04/03/13 - Holding Your Nose for Principles One of the difficulties with standing on principle is that often one is defending them when they are practiced by bad people. Or when bad conduct is involved. In both kinds of ...

	03/28/13 - Ideology Again Perusing the Sunday New York Times will almost guarantee running across the term "ideology" in various commentaries and news analyses. In her essay in Week in Review, titled ...

	03/25/13 - Welfare Rights are Wrong Ever since John Locke developed the theory of natural individual human rights, there has been an ongoing attempt to change his idea to something very different. For Locke the ...

	03/21/13 - A Précis on Libertarianism and Capitalism Libertarianism is the political system wherein the highest political good is the protection of the individual citizen's right to life, liberty and property. Capitalism is the ...

	03/18/13 - The Soviet Goal in the Cold War For a very long time after I left communist Hungary I have been witnessing how numerous Western "Sovietologists" have been trying to clear the USSR of any responsibility for ...

	03/14/13 - A Few Choice Quotes to Consider* Bannister on Theories: "... the psychologist cannot present a picture of man which patently contradicts his behavior in presenting that picture." From Borger & ...

	03/11/13 - Revisiting Our Basic Rights Professor Lynn Hunt's recently published book on rights, titled Inventing Human Rights , is filled with a great deal of very useful, important information about the emergence ...

	03/10/13 - Tibor Machan on Individualism and Its Progress in the 21st Century The editors of The Daily Bell are pleased to present another interview with well-known libertarian philosopher Tibor R. Machan. Introduction: Tibor Machan is currently ...

	03/07/13 - I've Fired The New York Times For years I subscribed to The New York Times online. Then I took the Sunday Times only for a couple of years but they managed to annoy me nearly as much as the daily edition. ...

	03/04/13 - Democracy and Gay Marriages Frankly I have no horse in this race, nothing personal in any case. For my money you may marry your grandmother or cat, if all parties consent. Marriages ought to be a matter ...

	02/26/13 - The Libertarian Public Interest A particularly irksome rhetorical ploy against the free society's champions is that they refuse to acknowledge that there is such a thing as the public interest (or public good ...

	02/21/13 - Self-Referential Paternalist Foibles Over the last several years, statists have changed their tune a bit. Instead of advocating Draconian governmental intrusions on people's lives, in the tradition of the Soviets ...

	02/18/13 - The Republicans' Achilles Heel In a recent Wall Street Journal essay, "Generational Theft Needs to be Arrested," three men advanced some suggestions to Republicans. Their main focus was the need for ...

	02/14/13 - My List Once I learned to read there was no end to it. I used my flashlight to make it possible after I was sent to sleep and my first books were quite a disorderly collection. I read ...

	02/11/13 - Arrogance of Power! Just how utterly reliant on sheer power is President Obama can be appreciated from the fact that no one in his administration bothers to defend his policy of confiscating ...

	02/07/13 - My Vigilant Ethical Egoism When I was in my late teens I discovered Ayn Rand, in particular her novel The Fountainhead . Actually I ran across her when I appeared in a theater group's rendition of her ...

	02/04/13 - The Democratic Ideal In this essay I wish to revisit democracy since all the power that our current administration is claiming for itself is supposedly justified by way of the democratic method. ...

	01/31/13 - On Rape and Pragmatism Something not often noted in the discussion of rape across the globe is that in an age that prizes pragmatism as opposed to firm principles of conduct, even rape can be excused ...

	01/28/13 - Obama's Macabre Politics Over the last few weeks, indeed since his victory at the polls, I have been listening to President Obama's speeches quite regularly. I wasn't surprised one bit at his ready ...

	01/24/13 - The Statists' Continued Folly! Paul Krugman has a regular column in The Times and can discuss what he chooses to discuss so why is he fussing, as he did in a December column, that others have other ...

	01/21/13 - The Nature of American Politics So few grasp this that it's embarrassing. The political purpose of America, as made pretty clear by the Founders and the Declaration of Independence, was to secure for the ...

	01/17/13 - The Pitfalls of Public Spheres "Each fancies that no harm will come to his neglect..." – Thucydides Everyone has an incentive to use resources freely available to all... but none has a corresponding ...

	01/14/13 - My Recent Kafkaesque Experience It may not be the kind of experience many others have had other than at the Department of Motor Vehicles but I recently went through one that brought to mind Franz Kafka. I ...

	01/10/13 - Why Honor Politicians? Once, when my son was in elementary school, they had some kind of special event celebrating the achievements of various students – I can't recall just what the ...

	01/07/13 - Taxes versus Revenues: Leslie Stahl's Malpractice As I reach old age I shield myself from unpleasant television as much as I can. Of course, in order to stay apprised of events I cannot afford to skip all of what is irritating ...

	01/03/13 - A Note on Socialism as Elitism Since ancient times some people have considered the market place an unruly forum in which to determine whose work and what commodities are worth how much. With Marxism this ...

	12/31/12 - Obama and Ayn Rand In a November 8, 2012 interview in Rolling Stone magazine President Obama was asked about what he thinks of Republican VP Candidate Paul Ryan's (admittedly limited) respect for ...

	12/27/12 - The Erosion of Our Freedom Often when I argue that governments must not violate our rights – they are supposed to be unalienable, after all – statists have a ready retort: Government is ...

	12/24/12 - Gun Control Obscenities When the massacre occurred in Connecticut, there was no call for commentary, certainly not from me who lives thousands of miles from where it occurred and knew none of the ...

	12/17/12 - Doubting One's Mind A central topic of philosophy throughout the ages has been whether human beings can trust their minds, including their sensory awareness and thinking. Skepticism about this has ...

	12/13/12 - Ethics and Gouging During most emergencies there are those who could certainly use quite a bit of help and it is on such occasions that complaints about gouging surface most vociferously. The ...

	12/10/12 - The Myth of Non-coercive Paternalism The father-son team Robert and Edward Skidelsky – the former a recent biographer and avid champion of John Maynard Keynes, the latter a professor of philosophy – ...

	12/08/12 - FAFMT Appoints Richard Ebeling and Tibor Machan to Its Advisory Board Vaduz, Liechtenstein – The Foundation for the Advancement of Free-Market Thinking (FAFMT) announces the appointments of Dr. Richard Ebeling and Dr. Tibor Machan to ...

	12/06/12 - Defending Ideology It is very common among intellectuals in our time to demean ideology. Thus if one supports, say, free trade with foreign firms, one is belittled for doing so on grounds of ...

	12/03/12 - What About Wealth Redistribution? Ever since then candidate Obama's brief exchange with "Joe the Plumber" there has been plenty of mention of wealth redistribution in the major media. Then came the recovery of ...

	11/29/12 - It's All About Choices, Stupid There is a phony conflict afoot that statists are fond of bringing up when they try to discredit the free society. It is about the individual versus the community. Champions of ...

	11/26/12 - Capitalism, Socialism and Human Dignity Capitalism means human individual freedom, especially in the sphere of striving to become prosperous. To defend the system is a challenge because of its ties to individualism, ...

	11/22/12 - Another Effort to Void Our Basic Rights In this short essay I address an argument concerning welfare rights made against the late Robert Nozick by Adrian Bardon a while back. Bardon brings up an issue that's central ...

	11/19/12 - PBS and NPR, America's Pravda and Izvestia It is a feature of American culture that's most upsetting, though hardly anyone makes much of it at all. Indeed, I know several avid defenders of the free society who make ...

	11/15/12 - American Statism William H. Gass is one of the cheerleaders of American statism and he has done his fair share of work in support of the near total state (having done stints at the White House, ...

	11/12/12 - Perils of Originality At the outset I should confess that this may be something of a self-justification. I am not one whose ideas have been or have been meant to be original. At first this was just ...

	11/08/12 - Reexamining Democracy Over the last several decades of American political life the idea of liberty has taken a back seat to that of democracy. Liberty involves human beings governing themselves, ...

	11/05/12 - The Logic of Entitlement Not long ago I woke up to the disturbing news from the Big Apple that some disgruntled ex-employee of the Empire State Building went on a shooting spree and killed someone, ...

	11/01/12 - 'Government' vs. 'State' Concepts such as that of "government," like those of "democracy," "law," "justice," "freedom" and "love," to cite just a few, is what W. B. Gallie called "essentially ...

	10/29/12 - How Can Obama Not Turn Our Backs on Failing Businesses? During the rather brief and confusing discussion about bailing out automakers President Obama announced with his characteristic misplaced righteousness that we "will not turn ...

	10/25/12 - Ayn Rand and Libertarians Misunderstood Paul Ryan has some affinities with Ayn Rand's political philosophy and is now taking flack for this. Apparently eager to besmirch Ayn Rand and through her Mr. Ryan, claims now ...

	10/22/12 - Am I a Corporate Shill? It has always been my view that corporations are groups of people united for various purposes, often to benefit from a business venture guided by competent management. ...

	10/18/12 - Society as an Organic Body Karl Marx, in his posthumously published work Grundrisse identified his view of humanity very clearly. Humanity is an organic whole (or body). People aren't individuals but the ...

	10/15/12 - American Exceptionalism Revisited A fairly prominent perception across the globe is that America has had certain exceptional features. While these are mixed in with various traditional ones, they still manage ...

	10/11/12 - Government in America! The central achievement of the American Revolution was to demote government to a role of cop on the beat. The monarch stopped being the sovereign; the citizen became sovereign ...

	10/08/12 - Atlas Shrugged (the movie) Part II This could have been a movie review but I am not quite qualified to write one given that we are talking here about a craft, namely, movie making, with which I am not ...

	10/05/12 - Unlimited Democracy The Magna Carta was an early attempt to rein in government, reduce the scope of monarchical rule. Constitutional monarchy was the result in many countries. When democracies ...

	10/01/12 - 'Asking' Versus Forcing Folks to Pay a Little More President Obama raised the issue of why anyone would object to asking the very rich "to give some more." As he put the matter, "What is wrong with 'asking' those who make more ...

	09/27/12 - Frankness About Wealth Redistribution When taxation is part of government, wealth redistribution goes hand in hand with it. Taxation was what feudal systems used so as to pay rent to the monarchy. The monarch, ...

	09/24/12 - Dworkin's Plain Statism As is usually the case, The New York Review of Books gives ample room to some leftist jurists, like Professors David Cole or Ronald Dworkin, to provide the politically correct ...

	09/20/12 - Is Utilitarianism a Sound Ethics? In the recent past, some who failed to disclose that Penn State University's assistant football coach molested several youngsters tried to excuse themselves, saying they ...

	09/17/12 - The Era of Procrustes It used to be considered an ugly trait to be envious. Envy is when one holds that it would be best if everyone were equally badly off. If you are better off than I am, envy ...

	09/13/12 - The Open Secret to Affordability For a little while I was mystified about what would make the health insurance scheme that's at the heart of Obamacare affordable. I was reading about the measure all around the ...

	09/10/12 - Jobs in a Free Country I. The Myth of Job Security From naïve cinematic sentiment to official public ideology is unfortunately not that big a leap. Once during the New Hampshire primaries, ...

	09/06/12 - Phony Intimacy Mrs. Obama was praised for reporting in her speech at the Democratic National Convention that President Obama takes his mission to be a personal one, that he treats the ...

	09/03/12 - The New York Times Meets Property Rights Over the last several years I have subscribed to The Sunday New York Times , mainly because it came with accessibility to its daily online editions. I like to read the Op Ed ...

	08/30/12 - Pragmatism's Problems It has now become something of a badge of honor to be a pragmatist, especially in public policy matters. Being pragmatic means promoting policies that work, being practical or ...

	08/27/12 - Socialism American Style Mr. Milos Foreman is a renowned film director but not a good political economist. This is evident in his New York Times op-ed defense of Barack Obama from those who ...

	08/23/12 - Another Attempt to Bluff Us All Those aspiring to manage our lives, to take it over and run it according to their vision, never tire of trying to bluff us into letting down our guards. Now come Robert and ...

	08/20/12 - The Allure of Mandates Peter Coy of Bloomberg/Businessweek is an avid fan of mandates (see his "The Case for Way More Mandates" 7/9-7/15, 2012, p. 24). That is to say he prefers forcing people to do ...

	08/16/12 - The Left and Women's Reproductive Rights At the outset I will declare my commitment to the right of women to terminate pregnancies prior to the time a human being has developed in their bodies (roughly the 25th ...

	08/13/12 - The Olympics and Politics Strictly speaking, sports and politics should be separate, just as should be religion and politics. Of course, folks with strong religious convictions will often be guided by ...

	08/09/12 - Elementary, Dear Obama Ok, so none of us creates or produces anything ex nihilo . What if anything follows from this? Our teeth weren't made by us, nor our hair or nose or eyes. Yet we often benefit ...

	08/06/12 - Acceptable Selfishness? A big debate among business ethics professionals – teachers, consultants, etc. – concerns who should be the beneficiary of business management, share (or stock) ...

	08/03/12 - A Very Brief Note on Minarchism and Monopoly For a while an inordinately long essay has been posted all over disputing my views on government. The author is Nicholas Dykes. I wish to inject just one short comment in ...

	08/02/12 - Why Are there Theories? Over the years, especially since the Internet became prominent and widely used, my own ideas have received a lot of challenges. Some of these come from people with different ...

	07/30/12 - Troubles of Public Resources Some insist that street vendors around the country should be banned. Why? Because the majority of those doing business adjacent to the street want them to be. The issue has ...

	07/26/12 - Another Plea For More Statism! I recently read Zadie Smith's essay, "North West London Blues," in The New York Review of Books , and found it an insulting, devious, and roundabout way of trying to justify ...

	07/23/12 - What's the Fuss About those Uniforms? Senate Majority Leader Reid expressed outrage about the fact that the uniforms American athletes were going to wear at the opening ceremonies for this summer's Olympics in ...

	07/20/12 - Warren's Non Sequitur Revisited This column addresses President Obama's fallacious reasoning about property rights. I wrote it a few months ago (updated here) when Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts candidate ...

	07/19/12 - Jobs From Forced Charity – The Socialist Way It appears, based on the economic philosophy he has been outlining in recent weeks, that President Obama believes that jobs based on economic transactions, exchanges, trade and ...

	07/16/12 - Constitutional Anomalies As a lay student of the law, it has always struck me odd that in the US system the First Amendment to the Constitution exempts the ministry and journalism from government ...

	07/12/12 - Obama's Immigration Machinations Not for a moment do I buy that President Obama has suddenly grasped the plight of illegal immigrant children. For one, he is on record declaring that the law ties his hands ...

	07/09/12 - Whose Life is it Anyway? There was a movie with this title some time ago, starring Richard Dreyfuss, that had to do with whether a person has the right to end his or her own life. If one has a right to ...

	07/05/12 - Markets and Generosity A frequent though quite unjustified charge against free markets is that they encourage what Karl Marx called the cash nexus or, as it is also put, commodification, treating ...

	07/02/12 - My Fourth of July Reflections For some people the Fourth of July is the most important holiday in America. Sadly, not for all, especially not just now when most of the leadership of the country has made it ...

	06/29/12 - Public Choice Theory: Not the Whole Story When he wrote this piece, Dr. Tibor R. Machan was Professor of Philosophy at Auburn University, Auburn. Alabama, Senior Fellow of the Reason Foundation and author, among other ...

	06/25/12 - The Distortions Never Went Away I have been reading into Herbert Croly's The Promise of American Life (1909). Croly was the founder of The New Republic , which has remained a foremost middle way publication ...

	06/21/12 - The Real Scoop on Public Service Unions - Part II In many states of the country, including California, there is a crisis brewing in the public service employment region. No longer are public service employees expected to be ...

	06/18/12 - The Real Scoop on Public Service Unions - Part I In the wake of Governor Scott Walker's survival of a recall vote, initiated by friends of Wisconsin's public service unions, let's explore again just why such unions are ...

	06/14/12 - Is Commerce Decent? It is not a waste of time to revisit the topic of business bashing, especially in light of President Obama's current attacks on wealth creation. He says he prefers job ...

	06/11/12 - Wealth Versus Job Creation "When you're president, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, your job is not simply to maximize profits," said president Obama recently. He added, "Your job is to ...

	06/07/12 - Did '96 Bill Force People to Work? As The New York Times would put it, when in 1996 "President Bill Clinton delivered on his pledge to 'end welfare as we know it'...he signed into law a bill forcing recipients ...

	06/04/12 - Seattle, America's Europe? On a recent trip to Seattle, which I visit on and off quite a lot, I found the place to have just the kind of feel I have experienced in Stockholm and Oslo and in cities, big ...

	06/03/12 - Tibor Machan on the US Economy, Business and President Obama's Growing Market Prejudice The editors of The Daily Bell are pleased to present another interview with well-known libertarian philosopher Tibor R. Machan. Introduction: Tibor Machan is currently ...

	05/31/12 - Sandel's Distortions Some people lie without any hesitation. To bring lies to print, however, you need more than liars – you need editors who want the lies to circulate, good and hard. ...

	05/24/12 - Business Versus Business One of Karl Marx's less notable mistakes was his belief that people in the world of business would promote their self-interest. If by self-interest we include, as I believe we ...

	05/21/12 - Revisiting the Responsibility of Business Managers People buy stocks, shares in a firm, mainly so as to delegate to the officers the job of securing for them economic prosperity. What else did all the folks who purchased the ...

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Site Contributions: Tibor Machan

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